I'm disgusted

[andrewducker]

If you are a woman, know one, or are related to one then you'll almost certainly be as sickened as I am by this article on discrimination against pregnant mothers.  But not terribly surprised by most of it.  The bit that gets to me is that an advisor to the government is saying it, and nobody is speaking out to contradict him...

Comments

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

The very fact that you're equating "being of childbearing age and female" with "being stupid" is problematic.

Okay, you say you're looking for hard data: why? As far as I can tell, because the question is asked. And the question is asked because discrimination exists. It's only valid to argue that you ought to have data on X thing if you also have data on every other possible thing, particularly if X is something only affecting a group who are already subject to systematic discrimination. And I would argue that data on every possible thing that might affect job performance isn't available, and that it's systematically more likely that questions will be asked and data acquired about groups subject to discrimination. Very little is published on the causes of heterosexuality, for example.

It also occurs to me that you ought to be able to ask if a potential employee has a terminally ill relative. My mother's death definitely had an impact on my ability to work; I'm less sure whether my pregnancies did.

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

He didn't. He offered another, alternative example - the two are vastly different things.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Hard data - Because there's clearly an intuitive connection between pregnancy/maternal leave/motherhood and diminished ability to work, at least for some people, and this debate becomes a non-issue if it turns out that there is, in fact, no reported reduction in productivity. Provably no reduction in productivity from getting pregnant = no reason to ask about plans so to do.

Terminally ill relative - yes, that seems like a reasonable example in the same ballpark.

First sentence - see John's comment.